Those Who Never Sleep
by Lecherous Fever
Summary: Chapterless flash-fiction. Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep. Taito/Yamachi


**Disclaimer//** I, of course, do not own the holiness that is Digimon. I only wish I did.

Digimon belongs to Toei Animation, etc. But you already knew that. (:

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"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep." ~Fran Lebowitz

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A faint shaft of moonlight fell through the small gap between the drawn curtains, a dividing line of questionable opacity through the centre of the bedroom. And on the other side of that almost-invisible line was the silhouette of a sleeping Yamato Ishida curled up in a sleeping bag on the floor. Groaning tiredly as he shifted position for about the fiftieth time in what he supposed was the last few minutes he had been awake, it dawned on Taichi Kamiya that this inability to sleep was becoming an unpleasant but regular occurrence. He stared at the dark shape that he assumed was his near-comatose friend for a few moments, even pausing to admire the lack of snoring emitting from the blond.

_At least one of us can sleep, _he thought to himself, pondering just how much longer he would be stuck awake with absolutely nothing to do. What _could_ he do? He couldn't exactly skulk around someone else's home in the hope of finding something to occupy his mind. The only other inhabitant of the house was fast asleep, and – much as waking Matt up wouldn't really have bothered Tai – he had no respect for people who interrupted his precious sleep, so it seemed to him kind of hypocritical to wake someone else up. Tai was a kind soul; the very type of kind soul that recognised how crucial snoozing was to lazy teenagers. And besides… wasn't it kind of pathetic to wake someone up just because you couldn't sleep? He thought so. As far as he was concerned, he was well past the age at which that might have been acceptable.

Finding himself incapable of closing his eyes, he scanned the room in search of something else to focus on. Anything. In the corner of Matt's room, his bass guitar was propped up against the wall with an array of sheets littered around it. On the floor nearby; a pile of dishes and mugs that had never made it to the sink, and various schoolbooks, wires and gadgets scattered around the computer desk. Taking in the selection of oddly-shaped shadows, Tai felt a little guiltily responsible for the gathering mess. Matt himself was not particularly neat or orderly, but his room hadn't been in this state before Tai had taken up residence as a sleepover companion while Matt's father was out of town. Tai's theorisation, though Matt would never admit to it, was that the blond was getting lonely without his younger brother. Their cheerfully bipolar friendship alone couldn't have been sufficient reason for the continuous stay-over invites he'd been receiving recently.

Casting his eyes back to the only strand of natural light within the room, he thought about how the near-divide was symbolic, in a way.

_Yeah, _he thought sarcastically. _Matt's on the side that gets to sleep._

Rubbing at sleepless eyes, Taichi once again changed his position. He flipped over his pillow and turned to face the wall on his left side rather than stare at Matt's peaceful form, finding comfort neither in the colder side of the pillow nor the blank wall presenting itself to him. It was driving him crazy to try and think about what was keeping him awake. He didn't have this problem when it was his own bed he was sleeping in. In fact, in the last three nights he had supposedly slept over, Tai had gained little more than half an hour's doze at night. Thankfully, he was always able to sleep while Matt was at band practice, so he wasn't too much of a washout by the time the Ishida was prepared for his company again.

The brunet sighed quietly, absent-mindedly running his fingers through the mess of tangled hair he called his own.

_I haven't been able to sleep since I started staying here… why?_ As Tai desperately searched his head for some explanation; some lucid train of thought, he half-heartedly shook his head as if trying to rid himself of a bad image.

_Could it be… homesick? No, that's not it._ He mentally kicked himself, yet another of his attempts coming to no avail.

An echo from somewhere in the forgotten or ignored pits of his mind reminded him that Matt was fast becoming the common denominator in all this; a voice he also tried to drown out. Tai closed his eyes and sighed. He was getting nowhere. He rolled over in his sleeping friend's bed again, making a huge effort to push away the part of his brain that registered it smelling so damn nice. Yamato's scent… you couldn't even put a name to it.

Taichi carefully rose from the bed and padded his way to the door of the room, cautious to make as little noise as possible so as not to disturb the blond's sleep. Surely his friend wouldn't mind him watching the TV if he couldn't hear it? Tai made sure to repeatedly hit the minus volume button as the television set crackled into life. Satisfied he had it at a ridiculously low volume, he flopped with an absence of grace down onto the sofa.

***

Opening his eyes a fraction, Matt heard his bedroom door being closed, ever so softly. He finally deduced it was safe after he heard the faint noise of the static of the TV jump into life from the next room mere seconds later. The sleepy blond rolled onto his back and stretched himself out, his head resting on his interlaced fingers as his eyes trailed non-existent patterns on the ceiling above him. Though it was kind of comforting to know his best friend wasn't getting any sleep either, he was getting so _bored_ pretending to enjoy a fitful sleep he wasn't receiving tonight.

So he was finally free to move, but now what?

Matt continued to gaze at the empty ceiling. That was, save for the one light hanging in the middle of it. He contemplated what the hell he could do to entertain himself, reckoning Tai must have been watching TV for about 10 minutes now.

_Screw it,_ he thought. _We're both up now._

Tai was started as the handle of Matt's door was sharply pulled, the groggy-looking blond himself stepping into the living room.

"Shit, sorry," Tai began to apologise. "Did I wake you?"

_No._ "Yeah, kinda…" Matt lied, running a hand through his hair and yawning as he made to sit down on the other end of the sofa. "So, what're you doing up this late? Or early… whatever." He yawned.

Tai shrugged his shoulders slightly, pointedly keeping his eyes fixated on the old football game playing out on the screen, but breaking into a light grin as he answered Matt's question.

"Just not tired, that's all!" Matt held back a creeping smile – good old Tai to retain his enthusiasm when he was critically deprived of rest.

Matt scooted a little closer to Tai, squinting through the overexposure of light to see just what the hell they were watching.

"Tai… what is this?"

"I don't know," came the reply from the brunet. "Some football game from last week, I think - there was nothing else on." Matt suppressed a laugh.

"I know something better we could watch." Matt swiped the remote control from where it sat on the sofa beside his friend and proceeded to flip it onto a music channel.

"Ughh," Tai protested, holding his temples in his hands. "It's too late for music, Ma-- hey!"

The taller of the two couldn't help but flash a smile so slightly tinted with evil when Tai flailed with objection at the rising of the volume.

"Cut it out!" Stretching out his arm far over the opposite side of the sofa and making faces at his losing friend, Matt tried and failed to stop himself from laughing. He had to admit, he was actually kind of having fun.

_Woah. I find a childish game like this so amusing? I really do need some sleep…_ He mused silently. Which is to say, he mentally slapped himself with the biggest proverbial tuna fish his brain could conjure.

Not in the mood for running around the sofa only to lose his target again, Tai decided on a different course of action. From the opposite end of the couch, he pounced on his unsuspecting best friend, grappling for the remote in Matt's left hand with a force that caused them both to crash to the floor. Matt let go of it and it was left to spin around the room as he kicked off the half of Tai that had fallen on him. He rubbed the spots on his leg and sides that had first made contact with the ground. The origin of their struggle seemed to be forgotten as Tai did the same.

"You idi--" Matt began, but was swiftly cut off by a bout of laughter from the other boy. A few seconds passed and he joined in; neither of the two quite sure precisely what was so funny. Eventually, they lay down in splayed positions on the carpet as the last remnants of their laughter faded away into the dim-lit night.

Several moments passed with neither of the two boys making an effort to grab the remote they had been fighting for. Instead, they stretched, quite content with just lying tiredly on the floor. Tai closed his eyes, thinking perhaps that the weird elated feeling forming in him just might ease him into sleep – bed or no bed. However, he blinked them open when he felt a sliver of cool skin touch his arm. Matt was lying by Tai's side on his back, his head turned to face him. Tai gave a slight smile; allowing his inviting brown eyes to meet the chillingly soft blue ones of his friend. Yamato shifted so he was resting on his side, careful not to break eye contact with the brunet. Eventually he cast his eyes downwards and to the sides, seemingly searching for something to say.

"Hey, Tai…" The blond's voice was gentler and quieter than usual. "You wanna know a secret?"

Intrigued, he wordlessly nodded. Yamato's eyes seemed to deepen a little, becoming more comforting and alluring with every passing second Tai's own stared into them.

"I can't sleep either." Matt let his pale eyelids fall.

Tai absently mirrored the other boy's position, lying on his side, and placed a hand gently on Matt's slender shoulder. The blond shivered slightly – whether from content or discomfort, Tai was unsure – but reassured him by opening his eyes and not pummelling him half to death.

"Do you know what's keeping you awake?" the blue-eyed boy asked delicately in what was almost a whisper.

"No… I don't." Tai replied in a voice of equal audibility, though it was soaked in a mild exasperation. He wasn't entirely sure, but he felt like… he was moving closer to Matt. Or maybe Matt was moving closer to him. Well, whatever was happening, each felt like the other's face was inching closer, not stopping until they could feel each other's every breath. Tai's heart began to race as their eyes remained connected, both of their faces suspended mere centimetres away. Matt's heartbeat also gained speed as he ran a pale hand along Tai's exposed arm.

"I know why I can't sleep." Matt's voice grew quieter still, and Tai was pretty sure his heart was going to thud out of the cavern of his chest. Break right out of his ribs and fall sloppily to the floor and dare to still thrum it's rhythm as a taunt. But the shorter boy had no time to think as Matt closed his eyes once more and bridged the gap between them once and for all; strangely finding any objection silenced as he lost himself in the kiss.

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**Notes// **I wrote this around May last year, during a night where I wasn't getting any sleep myself. This was it's working title, and I never thought of anything better to give it. Not that it really deserves it. I've edited a few little parts that were really bugging me, but I've left it for the most part as it was. In all its unfinished glory. I know there are some really annoying things in here, but I want to put it up here as... I don't know, a sort of testimony to how I've improved. Well... _if_ I have. I hope I have...

Anyway, thank you - and my deepest apologies - if you even read this far. (:


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